We're "This Many"

When Danielle came to visit a few weeks ago with her daughter, she would tell everyone that she was "this many" and hold up 3 fingers. So, on the way to my birthday lunch, the 4 of us: me, Danielle, Jimmy and TG, were in the car together and I told everyone to hold up all of their fingers and that was "how many" I was. TG thought that was so funny, that was A LOT of fingers to be!
We had a great time in S. California celebrating Danielle's 40th. The weather cooperated and cooled off nicely after the sun set. She had a fun band, the most delicious birthday cake, and I saw a couple of friends from high school that I haven't seen since TG's baby shower.

On another note, I went to the foot doctor the morning we left. He took an xray that showed something suspicious between the 3rd and 4th metatarsal, and after getting a CATscan, it turns out that I have torn several ligaments and have very bad sprain. I have to wear a removable cast for the next few weeks. But now my foot hurts more than it did, in places that never hurt before. Which doesn't make me want to wear it. And since it's removable, it's easy to talk myself into taking it off. But everyone around me makes sure that I wear it. I suck at self-discipline. It all comes back to my lack of fortitude.

Despite hobbling around S. California for 2 days, we had a good time. We spent Saturday morning and afternoon with Lauree, Jimmy's sister, her husband Jim, and Eric, Jimmy's brother.
On the way home, we had dinner in Solvang.Solvang is a cute little town that was settled by a group of Danish educators in 1911. It was the first time Jimmy and I had gone to Solvang together. All the shops and bakeries were closed, but we found a little restaurant, and dined on Danish meatballs, sausage and red cabbage outside on their patio. I have to admit the atmosphere was far superior over the food, but it was great being in a part of California that we hadn't seen together.

Today, Sunday, we are relaxing at home. We intended on going to the hideaway, but with this gimpy leg of mine, I'm far to lazy to make another trip away from homebase. Not to mention that 2 1/2 more hours in the car, after 7 hours yesterday, doesn't sound very appealing. So the remaining of my Sunday will be spent either clicking a remote or clicking a mouse.

Home sweet home!
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Rounding off the celebrations

Saturday was the final installment of my birthday celebrations. It was a combined birthday party with Jimmy, since he turns 40 in less than 2 weeks. All in all, I think I had 6 different events celebrating my notorious 40th.

The first was in May when my cousin from Seattle came for a week to visit with her family. They're shy, otherwise I'd post pic.

The day before my birthday, I went to fondue with Danielle and her sweet little girl. bad photographer (that'd be me) should have moved those water glasses.

The day of my birthday, we went to Benihana.

A week-long combined celebration at the hideaway with family and friends.

A mini GTG (get-together) at the Old Spaghetti Factory with the Yuens and Brewers because they couldn't make it to...

A dinner party for both of us at our favorite Mexican restaurant with the Bowens, Chanceys, Phin, Madmax, the Parentals and my youngest SIL.

That's a whole lotta cake and/or ice cream consumed, not to mention great food!

But the birthday celebrations aren't quite over yet. For me, yes. But Danielle and Jimmy's birthdays are the 13th and 14th. We are going to Southern California this weekend to celebrate Danielle's. Then we'll celebrate Jimmy's with the parentals on his actual day.

Hurray! More cake and/or ice cream! Must keep moving more than consuming though.

Not a bad way to start off a new decade, is it?
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Hit It!

That's what I did today! Hit the big 4-0! Wow, it feels exactly like 38.

Thanks to all my loving friends and family who called, left messages, dedicated a blog post, left comments, mailed cards, sent text messages and emails. You all expand my heart.

Tomorrow, we are hideaway bound for over a week.Lots of fun, lots of water, lots of family and friends to continue the celebrations. We're hoping to get faster internet connection at the hideaway, so I may be able to do a post or two. That'd be an amazing birthday present!

The day may be over but the love I received will last me forever.
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It was a sunny day in Claremont, California

Just how the heck did 17 years go by in a flash? Must mean that its been a great ride.

The other day we had dinner with the Bowen's at La Fondue to celebrate. Their 14th wedding anniversary this month, too. Have you ever had fondue? Can I just say that it's one of the best inventions ever. Get yourself to a fondue place if you've never tried it. Just be prepared for a long dinner, ours lasted 3 hours. Which isn't nearly enough time to digest all that cheese, meat and chocolate. But the pain is worth it, I promise. :)
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Happy New Year

Wishing you and yours a wonderful and peaceful 2008!

Photo of SF fireworks taken a few years ago on New Years Eve.
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Coal in my stocking

While I can definitely eat more than my fair share of Hershey Kisses, there's no way in tarnation that I coulda eaten all those kisses in my last post after the celebrating (ie: eating) I've been doing.

Thursday night, I went out with friends from another stamp club that I'm a member of. Only half of us were able to make it, but at least we were all able to partake in the same conversations.
We had dinner at Stacey's Cafe in Pleasanton, which is co-owned by Scott Adams the writer of the Dilbert cartoons. Not only did I finish my entrée, but I also had dessert (gasp!). I refrained from licking my plate since this was an actual cloth napkin restaurant. After I got home I made more of those Pretzel Kisses for my get-together on Friday with
The Bowen's. We had a casual dinner at their house then went out in the 45 degree weather to walk around their neighborhood and look at all the fancy lights. Do you burn more calories when your walking if you're shivering at the same time? Ok, I know some of my Northerner bloggy friends are rolling your eyes at me and my 45 degrees because I've seen your pictures and your snow and your ice but I was freezing. Maybe I should have worn a jacket. That probably would have helped. I'll make a mental note next time.
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Lots of celebrations

It's been a busy month of birthday celebrations as I mentioned here. And I did miss quite a few people, as I figured!
This little sweety, Miss L, celebrated her first birthday last weekend. I'm ashamed that the only photos I actually took of her are from behind. But the other times I was either holding babies or playing with other kids or stuffing my face.

Today's celebration was Miss A's and she is the oldest of our friends kids. It doesn't seem like its been six years since her mom was preggers with her.

Miss A received this red riding hood apron (?) from her Aunt Karen. This was the most meaningful gift of the day, because the apron was originally owned by Miss A's great-great-great grandmother A Bowen, one of the ancestors A was named after. And it's Bowen tradition that the oldest Bowen girl passes it down to the next generation's oldest Bowen girl. Pretty sweet, huh? So this cute little apron is well over 100 years old...and in pretty good shape, too! I love hearing about heirlooms like this, don't you?

Prince WBowen turns 3 later this month. But the family is here for the long weekend, so they have a birthday weekend celebration, Saturday for Miss A, Sunday for Prince W. I'm gonna miss Prince W's celebrations, but I wanted to give him a little whoo hoo, too!

It's been a while since I've posted any of my craftiness, so I thought now would be a fine time just to show the cards I made for the three kids.

And lastly,
August marked my 2nd blogaversary. Two years ago, I started blogging because I had been lurking on websites that offered photo challenges, and I wanted to participate, too. Then I found Illustration Friday and other websites that offered creative challenges and started submitting some of my artwork there. Thru these websites and other blog surfing, I found a creative community of bloggy friends who I enjoy spending the time reading about their world and happy to share bits of mine. Who'da ever knew I'd love it this much? It's thanks to all of you!
>>Great big hugs<<
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Yes, I kept the menu.

We celebrated Jimmy's birthday at a new for us restaurant, McCormick and Schmick's. When I called to make reservations, they asked if we were celebrating a special occasion, of course I said yes. When we were seated, there was a card at the table for Jimmy and all of our menus had "Happy Birthday Jimmy!!!" printed on them. Sweet, yesh? The food was fantastic, too. We shared the crab cake appetizer, each ordered a salad and we both got the salmon stuffed with crab, bay shrimp and brie. I split a chocolate mousse with his sister and he got vanilla bean ice cream with fresh berries for dessert. Could possibly be our new favorite seafood restaurant.

Happy Birthday Jimmy!

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Grateful

I'm overwhelmed with the kindness and the generosity of all my friends, both online and personal. I had a fantastic, totally 'me' day, spoiled by everyone. But certainly one of the highlights was just hearing the little yippee's and well wishes for my birthday. I often get nostalgic around my birthday but this year I decided I would just focus on the celebrations. :) Thank you all for your warm wishes - each comment in my last post warmed my heart.

The most memorable event that happened yesterday was the rain. In 39 years, I don't recall it ever raining on my birthday. I know that in the Midwest and east coast, summer rains are par for the course, but in California, our summers are bone dry. Our local news commented that in the recorded history of the bay area, it has never rained on July 18th. I loved it - it really just barely sprinkled, but the cool weather and light precipitation was refreshing. And ending the day with a guiltless slice of chocolate cake and butter cream frosting certainly was the icing. :)

-A beautiful Grace journal from Phin.

Gift Opening Aftermath

Yippee! Thanks for the support for opening the package NOW!! Green Butterfly, the gift giver also gave the green light, so it took me about a split second to tear that wrapper off! Once I did, I saw that the big box was stuffed to the brim with a bunch of goodies...all of them individually wrapped in tissue or paper.And each and every treat had a post-it note attached to it, with a funny little quip or reason why she thought of me for the particular gift(s).
Some of my favorite post-it notes:
-On the Trivia for the Toilet book: "Because light reading is always nice for you 'regular' folks".
-On the Cosmos Grow kit: "Too cheap to buy you live flowers. Grow 'em your damn self, hehe."
-On the snacks: "Because there's no such word as weight watchers on your birthday!"
-On the Pirates DVD Box: "E chewed the corner. Sorry!" More precious in my eye, GB!!

The girl is hilarious!

Dontcha all just love birthdays??

Here's the aftermath of the frenzied unwrapping. Cat was not included in the box. She was just extremely curious, as cats tend to be.

So tomorrow I turn 39. I proclaim till midnight, which is just 2.5 hours away, that I am still 38. I'm celebrating with an indulgent massage and English tea, then we're heading to the parentals for a small celebration with them.

Thanks GB! I love 'em! I've eaten 1/2 the box of Panda snacks, played a couple games of Simon Says (dude, it's harder than I remember!) and almost started to grow the flowers (they're in the kitchen).